This is the story of the "call" from our newsletter

A funny thing happened to us on the way to retirement in Vermont. The road runs through Lima, Peru! More than a decade after accepting God’s call to service at St. Thomas Church, Polly and I were again contemplating our future. More practical than anything was where to live after leaving. Most of you know, as much as we love the Fox Valley, our hearts were being drawn to our vacation and soon retirement home in Vermont.

All that remained was for us to finish the race, keep the faith. In addition to the discharge of my duties for the balance for the year, I was scheduled to take sabbatical time in Belize and then Peru. Belize was wonderful and I even knew the language! A month later we found ourselves in Peru, aiding Bishop William Godfrey in Arequipa and in Lima.

As most of you who know my heart would suspect, what excited me most was the ministry of the church in the shantytowns; makeshift communities up the valleys and the hillsides above Lima. Populated by displaced people coming in from rural areas, driven by a variety of social circumstances and unrest, you and I would call these places slums. Most lack water or drainage and electricity lines run from place to place like spider's webs. Truly, for Peru, these are the poorest of the poor. Yet in these communities the Anglican Church’s ministry is welcomed and bears great fruit.

Still as adept as the Anglican Church is at starting these new missions, I soon learned that many of clergy called there are still “fresh off the boat” or have come from other denominations. All this to say I saw a great need for their further training. Certainly this would be a burden we would carry on our hearts as we left Peru.

And then I heard God’s Voice. He spoke and changed everything. All our plans. The direction of our lives. Everything.

As we were participating in a service led by the local pastor, Fr. Benjamin Salas, a woman stared me right in the eye and said, “Are you coming here to help us?” Her words pierced my heart. I sincerely believe that it was not just a woman speaking to me...

Not much later in my trip, we were gathered with Bishop Godfrey and he spoke directly from his place of need and perhaps even frustration. To all assembled he said, “I need people to help me here.” Although in a crowd, I felt words again pierce my heart. Afterward I asked him if he was speaking to me. He turned and said, “Was I? If the cap fits!”

Excited beyond all measure, I told Polly about my experiences. Polly: “So much of what captured me was not necessarily spiritual: the ocean, good food, the pace, the style, the warmth of the people.....Ian being happy. The Bishop talking with me like I was a person and not just Ian's wife. I had prayed last summer that God would woo me; He did.”

The wonderful news here is that God does not believe in retirement, certainly not from a lifetime of teaching, equipping and ministry. Through hearing his voice, prayer and an excitement we can hardly contain, we accept His call to Peru, for such a time as this.

Our ministry will be one that is both evangelistic as well as socially transforming. Bishop Godfrey’s invitation is for me to mentor, teach, encourage and come alongside his clergy in Peru. I will be able to use my great love for the Anglican clergy to oversee the teaching and molding of energetic, enthusiastic and freshly minted clergy and lay leaders.

Polly again: “I see the opportunity to plan spiritual retreats for clergy and lay people along with facilitating the comfort and itinerary of visiting mission teams. And Lima, on a good day, does kind of remind me of Vermont. Hills / Andes!” Psalm 32:8

If you receive this news with as much enthusiasm as we have, please know that you are a partner with us in this challenge, as well as part of our family. We have been accepted by the South American Missionary Society (SAMS- USA) and are beginning to assemble a stateside partnership team, develop a strategy for raising support and a timetable. You will be hearing more in the coming months.

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit…” John 15:16

Re. Bishop Bill Godfrey

I have just learned that Bishop Bill had a rough trip to England due to his ill health and has stayed there rather than go on to the GAFCON conference. Please pray for his health and strength.

God is working his purpose out.

I have been workingon putting together a support team. I believe that the team will have a Vermont as well as a Wisconsin component. So far God has given us Fr. Paul and Julie Feider, Fr. Ed Smith and Michael Sajbel, who I have titled "propagandist." Michal is doing a wonderful job of helping Polly and me get our initial news letter ready. Fr. Andy Osmun is joining us from CT. Andy and I go back to seminary and 1972. Andy has been a stalwart SAMS board member for as many years as I can remember and knows so much more than I do about missions. Paul, Julie and Ed are my closest friends and companions in WI. They have prayed with us and fretted as God seemed to keep us on the hook. There are some more folk yet to be asked. I do not want to be too broad and just invite people because I like them. This has to be a leading from the Lord to us. Then the person can respond to God. I am also trying to give some separation from our parish who will, after we leave in January 09, be struggling with a search process and they do not need our ghost haunting their decisions in any way.

Michael Sajbel has said that the picture on the left is for him one of the most haunting in my collection. It was taken on my camera by Fr. Mike Chapman while I was singing and trying to attract people to our service. When she came Mike continued to photograph he and she hid the hat behind her back. She has the most beautiful face.

As a matter for prayer - please pray for a buyer to come along for our house. It is not as if we are moving until the end of this year, however it would be nice to have that house sale taken care of. We will be happy to rent when the time comes.

P.S. I know the picture is repeated further down the blog - It bears repeating.

The invitation is official.

I now have the official invitation! Bishop Bill is such a blessing. I can't wait to get there and to have learned enough Spanish to really communicate. Patience!!!

I have added a link for donations - don't be bashful.

Blessings - Ian

Things are happening!

I am now in the process of prayerfully asking those folk whom God indicates to me if they will become part of our support team. Thus far four have accepted the invitation. I am also working on an initial newsletter, which will announce to all our friends, family and colleagues what God has called us to do in Peru.

Here are pictures in two of the shanty towns.

On the left we are in Cerro Cajamarca and I am singing with Fr. Benjamin Salas and his wife Livia, joined by Doris on the left. We do this to attract the community and tell them we are "open for worship" later we (Fr. Mike Chapman and I) prayed for many. Mike did the praying and I asked God for knowledge - I needed it as I had no clue about what they were saying. It amazed the folk that God would tell me, I would tell Mike and he would confirm it with the prayee. Talk about GLORY! We were all blown away by God's presence and power to heal.

In the second picture we are in another shantytown above Lima. This young girl came out to visit with us. In her home behind her there live three families. There is no running water. Sister Edith comes every week to minister to these families in a "church" - a couple of rooms loaned to us by a local Christian family for worship and teaching.

What a joy it is to be involved with these wonderful folk and the dedicated clergy and lay ministers. I cannot wait to learn enough Spanish to go in without an interpreter. I can't wait for God's provision that will enable us to go. Am I impatient? HUGELY!

The picture on the left is of a Peruvian woman making her way to our meeting, drawn by the music.

In the background is the city of Lima shrouded in its traditional mist. Underfoot is the desert terrain upon which these communities are built.

These ladies in ten days cleared a site for the new church, terraced it with rocks. A day later they were able to get "title" to the tiny piece of hillside which is now the "Church." Fr. Benjamin wrote me this week that they have been blessed by the bishop and hope to build a structure in October.

When Fr. Mike and I first went to the property we were asked to bless the cornerstone rock. e did so with holy water. That rock is continually wet to this day! Is this a sign or what?

More later

I am visiting the early church of Cerro Cajamarca in Lima. Fr. Benjamin and I were singing so as to attract a crowd. Ten days later we did the same thing on the property that the women had cleared up the hillside. Yesterday Fr. B wrote me to say that in October they will start to build with teh Bishop's blessings. God is really Good!

A new beginning

Having just returned from two months of sabbatical it is exciting to have determined where God wants to use us after retirement.  Polly and I have been invited to return to Peru to assist Bishop Bill Godfrey in training clergy and seminarians.  We will be based in Lima Peru and we will be sent under the covering of SAMS-USA (South American Missionary Society).

The details are still to be worked out.  Please be patient, God is not finished with me yet.